The tanks are rolling at Buchan
3 - 4 December 1994
by Peter Ackroyd
Saturday 3rd December 1994 was the date of the third Annual General Meeting
of the Friends in its incorporated persona. In the morning and into the early
afternoon a few Friends, including Jim Daly and Richard Laurier of the
Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, carried out repair work on
the tree guards in the revegetation plot at the Potholes. By mid afternoon the
very hot conditions had forced a retreat, but not before all the plastic tree
guards were restored and many weeds pulled out of the plot.
Recent storms and a broken fence had allowed the natural elements and cattle
to wreak havoc amongst the young trees. Fortunately, the storms also had
brought some rain and so the vast majority of the trees had grown strongly,
some of them are over 300mm high in less than six months. (Ed. - some are now
over 1m high in March 1995) These trees are real survivors - they've come
through fire, drought, hail and marauding cattle, and still they grow. It
appears we will soon have a nice forest of Buchan Blue Wattles, Casuarinas and
Yellow Boxes in the plot.
Back in the main caves reserve, after a quick cup of tea in the guides
office, the more adventurous Friends went up the hill behind the Government
houses to roll a 4 metre diameter water tank onto a truck and so rid the
hillside of the last of six eyesore water tanks. The only problem was that the
hillside was rather step and the tank threatened to demolish the ranger's house
directly below if it could escape us. Eventually it was muscled onto the truck
and carted away to serve out its days as a wood shed.
That evening was to be the Annual General Meeting and traditional barbeque.
The only traditional part that we could not replicate was the fantastic
barbeques provided by Graham and Diane Parkes. However in memory of their
contributions over the years, Mick Adler and Cathie Cranston organised a great
feed for the hordes, with many volunteers pitching in to help out in the food
preparation before-hand.
The new guides office in the southern part of the Caves Reserve proved to be
a great venue with lots of convenience and the added attraction of shrieking
yellow bellied gliders and the mournful tawny frogmouths to entertain us. This
area of the reserve is quite perfect in the early summer.
By 8:50pm our president Geoff Hammond could hold himself back no longer and
led off into the bureaucratic feast of reports, motions of acceptance,
elections and future planning. The main outcome was a major change in the make
up of the committee, with three new faces, and Mick Adler being the new
president. There were some very kind words from Dale Calnin on the value the
Department places on the Friends group.
Those Friends who attended were:
